Archive for the ‘theory’ Category
Posted by amanezca on December 4, 2012
“El templo de la perspectiva” de Tom Greenall y Jordan Hodgson. Es una representación artística de la historia de nuestro planeta y nuestro lugar en ello (en un pilar de capas) construido como monumento visual. Una exploración secular del significado, contexto y reverencia.
[Gracias a Doxus Turquino por la traducción al español. Also available in English: Communist foreshocks: Words, ritual and symbols]
Mike Ely
18 de marzo, 2012
“La política es tan simbólica como analítica…”
“La audiencia que necesitamos es descubierta a través de medios sociales y culturales, no simplemente atraída con palabras.”
“Como señalara Lenin: el oprimido que se levanta demanda saber cómo vivir, y cómo morir (no sólo qué creer).”
“La gente necesita expresiones ínter-humanas vivas; expresiones sobre la concepción del mundo y la moralidad que sean más que simples catálogos sobre visión del mundo y moralidad.”
Siempre me he sentido frustrado con el presupuesto que podemos atraer gentes hacia la política revolucionaria principalmente “explicándolo” todo —como si, de repente, las personas adquirieran consciencia, militancia, y determinación en la lucha por una nueva sociedad, en gran parte porque se les diga una serie de explicaciones respaldadas por elaboradas estructuras de análisis. Yo he llamado este problema “el fetiche de la palabra”. Un nombre más formal (si necesitáramos otra etiqueta) pudiera ser racionalismo.
Entretanto vemos, tanto en la sociedad como en política a nuestro alrededor, sugerencias de que las “explicaciones,” incluso detalladas y correctas, no son suficientes —y vemos con frecuencia gentes quienes son atraídas a políticas bastante irracionales a través de poderosos medios simbólicos.
Podemos trazar el surgimiento y caída de la fantástica, extravagante, política de Louis Farrakhan —la cual combina el completamente engañoso misticismo con visceral llamado al auto respeto, superación personal, orgullo y mordaz enajenación política.
O podemos ver a grandes secciones del pueblo emergiendo a la vida política durante esta Primavera Árabe, liberándose de décadas de represión y, en su mayor parte, atraídos en primera instancia por la profunda resonancia de “¡Allahu Akbar!” y la ingenua esperanza en la justicia de la ley Shariah.
¿De dónde viene ese poder?
Seguir leyendo este artículo >>
Posted in >> analysis of news, >> communist politics, Black Panthers, communism, Kasama translations, mass line, Mike Ely, organizing, philosophy, theory | Leave a Comment »
Posted by onehundredflowers on October 4, 2012
This was posted on the LA Review of Books website. H/T to J. Ramsey for the reference.
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Badiou has the virtue at least of examining riots from a strategic rather than a moral perspective, and spying something within them other than a maddened reenactment of capitalist consumption. …[H]e takes the riot as something more than a manifestation of “culture,” more than an expression of an underlying social truth which it cannot help but affirm, for all its burned cars and looted shops. The questions which Badiou hears uttered by the Sphinx of riot are the correct ones: How do we generalize and extend the offensive capacity of the riot? How and why do riots spread and become open insurrection?
History and the Sphinx: Of Riots and Uprisings
by Jasper Bernes and Joshua Clover
1.
Riots are the Sphinx of the left. Every soi disant radical intellectual feels compelled, it seems, to answer the riddle they hear posed by the riots of the present, in Bahrain or Asturias, Chile or Britain: Why now? Why here? Why riot? These answers generally come in a few simple varieties. First, if the riot seems to lack focus or present clears demands – that is, if it is illegible as “protest,” as in the case of the London riots of summer 2011 – the intellectual will paint them as a “meaningless outburst” (Slavoj Žižek), undertaken by “mindless rioters” (David Harvey). Invariably, attributions of unmeaning must find support in patronizing sociology, rendering the rioters mere side-effects of an unequal society, symptoms of neoliberalism, capitalist crisis and the ensuing austerity. Frequently, such commentary adheres to the flinching rhetorical structure of “yes, but…” In the words of Tariq Ali from the London Review of Books:Yes, we know violence on the streets in London is bad. Yes, we know that looting shops is wrong.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Alain Badiou, capitalism, communism, financial crisis, Occupy Wall Street, organizing, philosophy, politics, revolution, riots, theory | Tagged: Rebirth of History | 5 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on May 26, 2012
Countries are different — and reaction takes different faces. In the U.S., anti-Islamic bigotry often takes the form of Christian xenophobia. In France, where rationalism is much more the social norm, racism often takes the form of a secular intolerance and a familiar European assumption of cultural superiority.
He targets the rise of a militant fascistic right in many places across Europe — starting with the growing vote for the rightwinger Marine Le Pen in France. Exploiting the desperations of an intense crisis, fanning the endemic flames of racism and fear, similar forces have cropped up — from the mass murder of Norway to the Golden Dawn growth in Greece.
Countries are different, of course, as we said above. And yet there is much here, in this essay, worth considering as the crisis here too in the U.S. drives millions to desperation and produces radicalizations both the left and the right.
This essay by communist philosopher Alan Badiou first appeared in Le Monde, the flagship newspaper of French bourgeois society.We thank Guavapuree for the translation.
The Racism of Intellectuals
By Alain Badiou
The extent of the vote for Marianne Le Pen is surprising and overwhelming; we look for explanations–The political class comes out with a handy sociology: the France of the lower classes, the misled provincials, the workers, the under-educated, frightened by globalization, the decline in purchasing power, the disintegration of their districts, and foreign strangers present at their doors, wants to retreat into nationalism and xenophobia.
Besides, these are already those French “stragglers” who were accused of having voted “No” in the referendum on the draft European Constitution– One opposes them to the educated, urban modern middle classes who are the social salt of our well-tempered democracy.
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Posted in Alain Badiou, philosophy, theory | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike Ely on May 23, 2012
Immigrant workers in Lumberton, North Carolina — attending a Catholic Mass animated by demands for legality. Their political struggle for justice created forms of organization and a mood of impatience that gave rise to economic strikes in the area’s plants (not the other way around).
Nat Winn, one of Kasama’s moderators, takes up a key question of our moment: As many people discuss going from resistance to revolution to a new society, what forces in society will form the core force of such a future movement?
by Nat Winn
Revolutionary change calls for strategy. Who should we base a revolutionary movement among? Who are the intermediate allies who might support radical change? What are the necessary types of organization we need and the most effective forms of resistance?
The emergence of mass resistance all over the world since the Arab Spring has brought these questions to the fore for revolutionaries. Things are complicated by a society in great flux. Here in the United States sections of the oppressed have been distanced from production and forced into the illegal economy. Those still employed have had their lives destabilized by things such as the rust belt phenomenon and the pressure to accept lower wages and benefits. Sections of the middle classes (including even many middle level managers in corporations) have felt their lives taken over by workload and insecurity – even when they have not yet literally been pushed down among the oppressed. So who do we look to in the current situation; which forces are our potential revolutionary cores?
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Karl Marx, Kasama, labor history, Lenin, Nat Winn, Socialism, theory, working class | 13 Comments »
Posted by Mike Ely on May 18, 2012
The 1897 founding of the League of Struggle for the Emancipation of the Working Class.
How should communists be organized? What are appropriate formation for action, debate and consolidation — in the inevitably different stages of a revolution’s life?
For some people even asking that question is heresy — since a very particular form of vanguard party is considered universal and a “settled question.”
This universalization of organizational questions is rooted in a particular reading of Russian and German history: It says Lenin separated off his Bolsheviks in a tight democratic centralist independent party early in the 1900s, and this allowed his forces the initiative and compactness they needed to contend for power in 1917. By contrast, it is said that Rosa Luxemburg and her Spartacist communists failed to break with German social democracy early enough — and so they were unable to consolidate or contend successfully, as communists, in the crisis of 1918-19.
This universalization has led small communist groupings to from small hostile sect-like groups — that declare themselves pre-party formations, or even parties — and that declare other parallel currents to be hopelessly corrupt.
We have discussed this reading (or rewriting) of Russian history before here on Kasama — particularly in the following posts and threads:
Posting this new piece is intended to continue engaging this once “settled” question — with a sharp eye on our needs today. Posting it is not intended as an endorsement by Kasama of historical claims or political conclusions made by the author.
This piece first appeared in the Weekly Worker (Britain) on May 17.
* * * * * * * * * * *
How Lenin’s party became (Bolshevik)
By Lars T. Lih
From 1898 on, there existed a political party called the Rossiiskaia sotsial-demokraticheskaia rabochaia partiia (RSDRP), or Russian Social Democratic Worker Party. Rossiiskaia means “Russian” in the sense of citizens of the Russian state, as opposed to russkaia, which refers to ethnic Russians. Of course, the party title made no reference to either of its two later factions, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, comintern, communism, Communist Party, Lars T. Lih, Lenin, Soviet history, theory, V.I. Lenin, vanguard party | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike E on May 13, 2012
The 9 letters to Our Comrades was an opening shot of Kasama’s project. These essays sketch a fundamental critique of the Revolutionary Communist Party’s turn toward cultism.
In another sense, it also represent a critique of a more general set of problems within the organized left. It is a critique of failure to deeply engage reality, and a corrupting sense of grandiosity.
Now these 9 essays are available in both main e-book formats.
Click here for the new e-book versions
Previously available forms:
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Posted in >> analysis of news, 9 Letters, Kasama, Kasama videos, Maoism, mass line, methodology, Mike Ely, New Com. Movement, podcasts, RCPUSA, theory, truth and class truth | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike E on April 24, 2012
“Recently, when I spoke in Atlanta, I mentioned the importance of a political economy of modern capitalism. And one brother said to me later ‘I really appreciated your point about the need to study political economy.’
“And I suddenly realized that I had not made my point clearly. I’m not arguing that we have to study more political economy — I’m arguing that we have to create one. We have no communist political economy (from the whole last century!) to just go study.”
“Some of the current theoretical fashions among communists today (of focusing on studying Capital) are both extremely positive (every communist should take theory seriously, and everyone should study Capital once or twice in their lives! And such study is a valuable place to begin preparations for political economic analysis. But it is also associated with some misguided assumptions — in those cases where the notion is that the analysis we need today simply requires somehow erasing what Marxists have done since Marx — as if the true answers are in the “basic texts” and have merely been obscured since.
“It would be nice if such fundamentalist logic were true, but unfortunately it is not.”
“The political economy of the twentieth century did (of necessity) require both negation and affirmation of Karl Marx’s analysis. His great work Capital is the analysis of capitalism (and its essential contradictions) that is (inevitably) rooted in a particular stage and manifestation of the capital relations. A number of things changed with the emergence of colonialism and monopoly, and then with the domination of the whole world by capital (and the subsequent shrinking of semi-feudal relations and the reversal of socialist relations).”
* * * * * * * *
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Posted in >> analysis of news, capitalism, communism, Karl Marx, Lenin, Marxist theory, Mike Ely, revolution, Socialism, theory | 119 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on April 20, 2012
John Coltrane
“We need to train ourselves (and promote among others) a “self-determinist spirit” — one that is militantly anti-racist, internationalist, and open to the concepts and decisions of African American people themselves.
“The discussion of oppressed nationalities (their present, their future, the modes of liberation, how socialism will contribute to ending their oppression) takes place in a way that embodies a respectful understanding of agency and self-emancipation. In some ways, it is African American people themselves who will decide if integration or separation best serves their needs and liberation — and (inevitably) many forms of solution will be presented on the terrain of actual politics (community control and autonomy, radical assertions of representation in political and economic centers of decision, consideration of proposals for independence and more).”
by Mike Ely
There has been a detailed and extensive discussion here of whether African American people form a nation within the U.S. I have very strong views on this matter that I would like to put forward.
I think it is clear (from history) that kidnapped African slaves were constituted as a distinctive community of people in a specific territory — both through the process of enslavement, but then through the betrayal of Reconstruction, their exclusion from integration within the U.S. and the century of Jim Crow.
This is not how most nations are constituted. But then, there is not some “typical” historical way that nations are constituted. Society does not (actually) have “classic” forms (though some people think it does). Many nations are forged through the process of emerging markets under capitalism (often through the increasing linkages of previous groupings emerging from feudalism). But if you look at the world: The forging of India or Kenya also involved artificial, enforced and compressed processes (and in each of their cases, there is very specific investigation to be made into how nationality and culture relate to official borders and governments inherited from colonialism.)
The process by which kidnapped Africans became a single nation was artificial, enforced, extremely brutal and compressed (in time). But it also involved the creative development of new bonds and the incredible inventiveness of a new culture born in suffering.I.e. saying that they were “constituted” does not mean, one-sidedly, that it is just something that someone else did externally to the people. The emergence of a Black nation is a process where the African-descended people had a powerful role of creating community, language and common culture under horrific conditions.
And then (in actual historical fact) the growth of industrial capitalism, the labor shortages of world wars, the mechanization of semifeudal agriculture in the South, and the courageous decisions of Black people themselves, then all conspired together to cause a Great Migration during the twentieth century (by which African American people became geographically dispersed, urbanized and overwhelmingly working class). This was a huge, historic change in their existence as a people — with profound implications both for how people are oppressed, and also how that oppression of Black people will finally be ended.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, African American, anti-racist action, Black History, communism, Mike Ely, racism, theory | 4 Comments »
Posted by redpines on April 1, 2012
Mass student march in Chile
Kasama received this essay, which seeks to engage a number of important questions:
How do we develop revolutionary subject capable of taking on the system? What is the role of class and class struggle in all of this? How do small groups of militants engage with mass movements? We post the piece here as a starting point for engagement. Publication does not represent any endorsement of its ideas by Kasama. Thanks to Stephanie for passing this on.
Affirming the Concept of Progressive Militant
By Jan Makandal
In a period of political turmoil, turbulence and chaos, our task will emerge for the continuation of the struggle. For us to comprehend and perform that task, theoretical clarity is imperative. Our aim is not for control, but to understand the necessity of our situation through developing a clear systematic theoretical guide, to define the methodology of how to deal with that necessity, and finally to participate in an organized struggle to address the problematic and contradiction of this conjuncture of capitalism at its higher stage. Our aim here is to offer a platform capable of regrouping progressive militants, and from that regrouping, to organize those among them who are capable of constructing a powerful combative mass movement to face capitalism and the process of capital accumulation.
For that regrouping not to remain a simple utopian fantasy, it is important, even imperative, to organize discussions and debates that are able to convince us of the necessity for progressives to organize, and to enable us to start developing the path on which this organization of progressives is to be constructed, as well the orientation this organization is to take.
Constructing theoretical unity as a starting point is important, as is the perennial and constant development of that theoretical unity. Many progressives only see the importance of engaging in practice; they view the task of progressives and even revolutionaries as simply to engage in practice, in direct action. This is a very erroneous tendency in the movement in general, in particular, and in our case it is an obstacle to our objective of constructing progressive organizations.
It is important that progressives construct theoretical unity, but not to limit our objectives to just this, or do it for its own sake. Theoretical unity is to should emerge in a common practice of organization, from which to constantly test the correctness of our theory, validate it, and put it through a constant process of rectification and consolidation.
Theoretical unity is to cement organizational cohesion among progressives and allow them to address collectively the problematic and contradictions of constructing a combative mass movement. No formulas or recipes are applicable to constantly changing complex realities, especially when the theories these formulas emanated from are generated from experiences that are external to those objective realties that we are dealing with. In fact, it is good to learn form previous experiences, not in order to export them and try to duplicate them into our own complex realities, but to extract general guidelines, from the never-ending translation of specific to general and general to specific.
To have theoretical unity is to have a far more advanced internal democratic practice inside the organized regrouping of progressive militants. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted in Marxist theory, theory | 24 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on March 23, 2012
Touched and moved by the murder of Trayvon Martin -- sorrow, anger, outrage, determination, solidarity. The demand for justice and an end (finally) to the killing of Black youth.
by Mike Ely
I appreciate Red Fly’s thoughtful comments on this question of anger among the oppressed. And have a few things to add.
I had written:
“Some people are willing to join movements that project a permanent state of anger, but few people would want to be governed by people defined by such anger. Militancy, yes. Relentless partisan opposition to oppression, yes. Indignant passion when people are mistreated, yes. But who wants a movement, a gang, a party, an army run by the Sonny Corleones of this world? Who thinks that this contains a sensibility that can encourage justice?”
Red Fly writes:
“We don’t have to be Sonny Corleones in order to represent and embody the righteous anger that oppressed people feel. The anger represented by the capitalist mafia in their relentless pursuit of profit is not at all the same as the anger of the oppressed rising to confront the criminals that run this world.”
Well, yes. In fact that is my point. Our movement should have an “indignant passion when people are mistreated.” But we should not some off like Sonny Corleone (in the Godfather) — someone driven by constant out-of-control desires for revenge.
I’m not arguing against anger. I’m arguing against being “defined” (as a movement) by the appearance of a “permanent state of anger” — in other words, that seems mainly motivated by revenge and payback, not a vision of a new world.
There is a difference between passionate and angry demands for justice — and a movement that seems to have revenge as its goal.
Our goal needs to be liberation and an end to oppression, not a historical period of “payback” against those complicit in the old order. We should not seem prepared to target the broad relatively-privileged strata of this society — we should mainly treat them as potential allies not as likely enemies.
We need to be, and appear, lofty. And we need to help train the oppressed to aim far higher than payback — and give encouragement to their higher aspirations. Which means winning people to a communist view: Not just end their direct oppression, but to carry through the fight against all oppression.
Obviously, we have in front of us the horrible example of Trayvon Martin — first his death, then the refusal of the authorities to arrest his murderer — and we experience (each in our hearts) real anguish, outrage, and yes anger over such injustice.
This is a discussion of how a movement presents itself. And the question is what (basically) defines us.
If it is the appearance of revenge – we will be misunderstood. If it is a lofty determination to end injustice through liberation — we will be succeeding in defining ourselves (publicly) in a way that conveys our goals and our view of solutions and our view toward people generally.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, communism, Kasama, Mike Ely, theory, white privilege theory | 11 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on January 6, 2012
Similar labels are not enough.
“To put it crudely: I think some views of socialism are barely modified versions of capitalism — and are not very attractive, and will not solve the problems of humanity.
“I’m not against uniting with people who hold those other views. Far from it! But I do resist assuming (without much exploration) that we believe in the same thing.”
By Mike Ely
Sophielux made a simple and understandable request:
“Could you help bring me up to speed by defining several of the terms frequently used on this site?”
Part of our task is creating a common language and we are far away from that. Examining most of our terms doesn’t reveal settled verdicts but real differences and vexing problems.
I would like to take the familiar term “socialism”as one example:
One of my problem with adopting “socialism” or “anti-capitalism” as some unifying framework is that quite diverse forces mean quite different things by these terms.
And part of my argument for a consciously-descriptive consciously-jargon-free discussion of goals (visions) is precisely to circumvent that problem. I have tried in a number of places, including the recent seven or eight points, to give a sense of what that kind of public presentation could start from.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, communism, Kasama, Mike Ely, Socialism, theory | 51 Comments »
Posted by Mike Ely on December 6, 2011
We have excerpted the following from a longer piece received by Kasama.
“The inherited practice of communism can not adequately speak to the present moment. The strategies and organizational forms of the past need to be reassessed. In some ways, our work is still beginning. How can we contribute to building a movement that can speak to the hope of millions?”
Loyal Heirs and Audacious Visionaries
by Tobias Reed
Communists must be more than loyal heirs. We must be audacious visionaries.
We have inherited a frame of reference for understanding the development of class society and social relations of all kinds. This frame of reference naturally has been reassessed and expanded over the years by countless writers, both inside and out of the communist “canon”, and it requires further elaboration still.
On the basis of what we know, we reaffirm the communist hypothesis: the idea that all oppressive social relations can and must be uprooted and transformed. We declare fidelity to communist theory and to the project of global emancipation. But this loyalty is not enough.
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Posted in communism, Kasama, theory | 25 Comments »
Posted by John Steele on November 4, 2011
The eruption of occupations from Tunisia to Oakland put difficult and inspiring questions on the table. Kasama’s sister site, Khukuri, has been digging into these issues from the perspective of communist theory.
Who is “the 1 %” — who rules the world and how? What is current the structure of global capital? See essays concerning a transnational capitalist class (TNC) — truly the global 1% (or less) — by Leslie Sklair, by William Robinson, Jerry Harris, and by William K. Carroll, as well as in the recent piece on global corporate networks.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Alain Badiou, Bill Martin, capitalism, communism, Don Hamerquist, financial crisis, J. Ramsey, John Steele, Marxist theory, Occupy Wall Street, occupywallstreet, philosophy, revolution, theory | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike E on September 24, 2011
Yesterday we posted a series of theoretical documents from the journal Causa M-L – the product of communist revolutionaries in Chile from 1979-1981, when the PCR of Chile was playing an important role summarizing Chile’s experience with the Pinochet coup and China’s experiences with the 1976 capitalist restorationist coup.
We have now received information about a second archive of documents from the Revolutionary Communist Party of Chile. The following documents are part of the preparations to regroup communists after the collapse of the worldwide Maoist movement (following the death of Mao). It involved a series of efforts to identify what was valuable and essential to being communists — at that time. It formed the basis of what ultimately became the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement. And its experiences (pro and con) are potential valuable as communists internationally seek to regroup — in specific countries and internationally).
This helps in the construction of a history of the Revolutionary Internationalist Movement — and the complex contributions and influences exercised by active players in different parts of the world (including this Chilean party, the Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path) and the RCP in the U.S.) The Chilean party, and its leading figure at that time, Jorge Palacios, was a particularly important force for a fresh and creative assessment of the communist politics inherited by Maoists worldwide.
Here are the documents:
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Chile, Communist Party, Kasama translations, Maoism, Marxist theory, theory | 6 Comments »
Posted by onehundredflowers on September 22, 2011
This comes from the Verso Books site.
COMMUNISM, A NEW BEGINNING?
Alain Badiou and Slavoj Žižek with Verso Books at Cooper Union, New York
October 14th-16th 2011
By Rowan Wilson
A new conference with leading thinkers to discuss the continued relevance of the communist idea.
‘The long night of the left is coming to a close’ wrote Slavoj Žižek and Costas Douzinas in their introduction to The Idea of Communism. The continuing economic crisis, the shift away from a unipolar world defined by American hegemony, and the ecological crisis mean that growing numbers of people are keen to explore an alternative, and to re-discover the idea of communism. With the advent of the Arab Awakening millions have sought new ways to overcome corruption and dictatorship.
Responding to Alain Badiou’s proposition of the ‘communist hypothesis,’ the leading thinkers of the Left convened in London in 2009 to discuss the perpetual, persistent notion that, in a truly emancipated society, all things should be owned in common.
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Alain Badiou, communism, philosophy, Slavoj Žižek, theory | Tagged: Adrian Johnston, Bruno Bosteels, Emmanuel Terray, Etienne Balibar, Frank Ruda, Susan Buck-Morss | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike Ely on August 16, 2011
by Mike Ely
I have many thoughts on each of John-John’s questions — and (i suspect) a rather different starting point.
This is a discussion about both the past and the future. What do we need or want from the past? How creatively do we prepare for the future? How much of the theory we need will emerge from our own coming practice?
I’m a partisan of appropriating what was revolutionary in the past — I think it is precious and that there is no way of facing the future without it. I am skeptical of the idea that our theory should come mainly from our own practice (since that is usually an approach that goes over to routinized and unimaginative activism). Yes our ideas and organizations will be tested (and transformed) in coming fires — and we need to prepare now energetically and expect then to be transformed again and yet again.
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Posted in Bill Martin, Black Panthers, communism, Cultural Revolution, Kasama, Maoism, Marxist theory, Mike Ely, New Com. Movement, philosophy, RCPUSA, Stalin and Stalinism, theory, Young Lords Party | 3 Comments »
Posted by Mike Ely on August 11, 2011
Click to download
Our new Kasama pamphlet contains two essays on the Communist Organization of Greece. — a creative revolutionary formation playing a leading role within Greece’s “movement of the squares.” It is now available for download in printable PDF format. And will soon be available in epubs format for e-readers.
The pamphlet features Eric Ribellarsi’s essay Greece’s Communist Organization: Learning to Swim in Stormy Weather.
What unfolded in Athens’ Syntagma Square was not expected, and for much of the left in Greece, there is a real fury that something like this dared to develop without them. There is a painful irrelevance settling in on strategies that have no faith in the people and their uprisings, and instead wish to fold everything into official political arena and its parliament.
The one thing in this experience that I have been most impressed with was the KOE’s creativity and willingness to shift when something unexpected happens, and at the same time holding on to a revolutionary strategy. Without calling for imposing a very different situation on our own in the U.S., I will say that I think there is a great deal to learn from the methods of revolutionaries like the KOE and others. And there are also things to learn about the intense tensions this has produced in and around KOE – as they try to resist tailing a new movement, as they try to replace discarded assumptions, and as they face inevitable generational differences (which are naturally intensified by new and younger recruitment).
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Posted in >> analysis of news, comintern, communism, Eric Ribellarsi, Greece, Kasama, Kasama pamphlets, Maoism, New Com. Movement, theory, vanguard party, winter has its end blog | Leave a Comment »
Posted by Mike E on June 30, 2011
This statement emerges from within the Kasama Project — in internationalist communist solidarity with the revolutionary movement of Nepal’s people
By Eric Ribellarsi and Mike Ely
Co-signers: Firewolf Bizahaloni-Wong, Jed Brandt, Luis Chavez, J.B. Connors, Joel Cosgrove, Gregory E, Red Fox, Gary, chegitz guevara, Rosa Harris, Lee James, Eddy Laing, Bill Martin, Stephanie McMillan, Giovanni Navarrete, Stiofan Obuadhaigh, Radical Eyes, Redpines, Alastair Reith, Enzo Rhyner, Harry Sims, John Steele, Kathie Strom, Tell No Lies, Adolfo V., Nat W., Fanshen Wong, Liam Wright
For over twenty years, the impoverished and isolated peoples in the southern Himalayan foothills have risen up to remake themselves and their world. Now, after the sacrifices of a whole generation, the future of their movement and society hangs in the balance:
Will the revolutionary sections of the people be able to carry through the struggle to create the radically new Nepal they have dreamed of? Or will the accomplishments of their struggle so far be consolidated into something that falls short of liberation?
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Posted in >> analysis of news, Eric Ribellarsi, Maoism, Marxist theory, mass line, Mike Ely, Nepal, revolution, theory, UCP Nepal (Maoist) | 15 Comments »
Posted by Mike E on June 19, 2011
Kasama received the following message.
Greetings from the Revolutionary Students Union Journal Committee,
The Revolutionary Students Union is preparing an inaugural issue of our theoretical journal Barricades.
In it, we hope to explore and debate the most pressing issues of our time. We hope to circulate this journal in print and online throughout the revolutionary Left to generate discussion upon these ideas.
Certainly, other excellent journals such as “Rethinking Marxism” and “Radical Philosophy” exist, but we seek to create a space for discussion that embraces other positions of radicalism without the necessary presupposition of Marxism and we hope to generate an interdisciplinary discussion beyond simply philosophy.
We are issuing a call for papers not only from traditional academic departments and journals, but also from a host of radical and revolutionary parties and organizations around the globe.
Topic of Issue #1: What is Capitalism Today?
We are thus calling for papers on the topic, “What is Capitalism today?”
- Does Marx provide the most useful framework for understanding capitalism?
- How has capitalism changed since its critiques of the 19th and 20th Centuries?
- Does it exist in the form of national imperialism tied to competing nation states?
- Has capitalism begun to transcend the nation state in the form of multi-national corporations or a trans-national class?
- Does it exist as primarily a domination between classes or has capitalism evolved as primarily domination of oppressed minorities by racist and heterosexist power structures?
- Is capitalism primarily a political economy or does it exist as a form of social colonization?
- Is capitalism a closed global system or is there an “outside” of capitalism?
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Posted in capitalism, Gregory Lucero, theory | 1 Comment »
Posted by Mike E on April 24, 2011
Kasama is publishing a series of articles this week on the destruction of the environment and socialist solutions. These articles will represent sharply opposing views, and (as usual) the posting by Kasama does not imply endorsement of specific arguments. Thanks to the Kasama team that has been researching and debating these questions. We started this series with One Struggle‘s statement.
The following is an excerpt from Draft Program written around 2001 within the Revolutionary Communist Party,USA. The RCP did not (in the end) adopt this program because of their course change after 2003. Nonetheless these ideas of socialist sustainability and Maoist urban planning deserve continuing attention and development.
The New Socialist Economy:
Agriculture, City and Countryside, Ecology, and Planning
Introduction
Maoism approaches economic development as an interdependent whole. It strives for integrated and egalitarian development. It takes account of the immediate and pressing needs of society and of the long-term goals and long-term effects of economic-social development.
Capitalism mobilizes human and material resources according to the dictates of profit and evaluates economic performance within that narrow framework. Socialism, by contrast, insists on a kind of social balance sheet. For instance, agricultural land-use has health and environmental repercussions; what is called the ‘built environment’ of residential dwellings, public buildings and spaces, and transport systems reflects society’s values and shapes the experience of daily life. These sorts of issues are part of the framework of economic calculation and planning under socialism.
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Posted in communism, ecology, environment, Maoism, RCPUSA, theory | 5 Comments »
